Fassbender was born in Germany and emigrated to Canada with his parents in 1952. Since then, he has lived his whole life in Surrey. He graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey and attended the National Broadcasting School in Vancouver. He got a film librarian job at CHAN Television and moved up the ranks to cameraman, and then producer and director. He worked for advertising agency James Lovick in the early 1970s and eventually became a partner of Frank Palmer at national firm DDB Canada. A major focus of his private sector career focused on social marketing campaigns including smoking cessation projects for Health Canada and international marketing activities for Industry Canada. In 1996 and 1997 he was reported to have done volunteer public relations work for the evangelical men's organization Promise Keepers. He is a distant cousin of actor Michael Fassbender.
Politics
After a failed run at a Social Credit nomination, Fassbender served a four-year term during some turbulent years on the Langleyschool board. During that time, the board pursued a 'back-to-basics' approach that considered restoration of corporal punishment and banning the Go Ask Alice novel. Fassbender says his approach to education has changed since the 1970s. Fassbender was elected for the first time to the city council of Langley in 2002, and then as mayor in the 2005, 2008 and 2011 civic elections. He advocated for the growing communities south of the Fraser River as co-chair of the municipal advisory council for Fraser Health and as vice-chair of TransLink's mayors council. In November 2012, the provincial government appointed Fassbender as chair of the board for the BC Pavilion Corporation, which operates BC Place Stadium and the Vancouver Convention Centre. In addition to dealing with major renovations, the position also dealt with transparency criticism from journalist Bob Mackin. In the 2013 provincial election, he defeated three-term NDP MLA Jagrup Brar and took leave from his mayoral position. As Minister of Education, one of his priorities was to seek a 10-year labour agreement with the British Columbia Teachers' Federation. In addition to his ministerial duties, Fassbender sat on the Cabinet Committee on Secure Tomorrow. In 2017 provincial election, he lost his re-election as MLA to Jagrup Brar. In 2018, he ran for his former position as mayor of the City of Langley. He was narrowly defeated, losing to Val van den Broek by around 200 votes.
